Traffic Safety
At a time when digital billboards are beginning to proliferate, many Provincial, State and Municipal jurisdictions are beginning to place severe restrictions or outright bans on such billboards due to the traffic and pedestrian safety risks presented due to driver distraction. Driver distraction is such a concern that all manner of specific sources of distraction are being banned from vehicles, including texting or using a cell phone while driving. Obtrusive digital billboards adjacent to major arteries are a sigificant potential source of driver distraction due to their intense brightness, excessive movement from animation, effects or full motion video, or due to their sheer size. Where allowed, most jurisdictions have strict regulations in force that limit the size of boards or severely limit the nature of the content. These regulatory limits typically mandate a dwell time of anywhere between six and twelve seconds, with transitions of 1-2 seconds. Full motion video, animations and effects such as transitions are typically banned. The Ottawa Convention Centre proposal mixes two screens and intends to incorporate the following elements: - A scrolling textual display ("title bar") spanning the two screens - Full motion video - Scrolling text and/or animated content Futhermore, there are no restrictions proposed on transition effects or on dwell times. Regulatory Loop-hole Colonel By Drive running alongside the Ottawa Convention Centre is a federal parkway and a scenic entry route into the Core Area of Ottawa. As it is a federally regulated parkway, Colonel By Drive is not subject to provincial regulations as it would be if it were a provincial highway. Since the federal government does not normally handle transportation issues, there are '''no '''federal regulations related to traffic safety on federal parkways driving regulation of signage in general, or digital signage, in particular. It is therefore reliant on the NCC to exercise good faith and judgement in the development and enforcement of signage policy. Provincial Regulatory Environment If Colonel By Drive were under provincial jurisdiction as a parkway, it would become subject to regulations and policies established by the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario. Under MTO Corridor Signage Policy, the Ottawa Convention Centre proposal would be banned outright due to violations of many of the policies and regulations related to digital billboards, put in place to ensure traffic safety. Among the non-conforming elements of the Ottawa Convention Centre digital billboards are the following. Size MTO regulations limit all billboards in built-up urban areas to no more than 60 square metres (Sec. 9.3). Billboards are further limited to allow no more than 8 metres in height from the level of the roadway. MTO regulations further limit the size of any wall-mounted billboards signs. In such cases, the limit on the size of the billboard is determined by the portion of the exterior elevation that is visible to the highway. The size of any sign is limited to 25% or less of the visible exterior elevation. Since the view from Colonel By Drive is partially obscured by DND, the visible face of the exterior elevation is limited to something approximating the principal facade (plane) of the South elevation. Changeable Message Signs Digital billboards are subject (Sec. 9.14) to all of the regulations governing information displays with changeable messages. Changeable message displays (Sec. 8.9) must maintain a static display for a dwell time of 180 seconds with a 2 sec transition time between displays. Animations, including full motion video, and transition effects are not allowed. Setbacks Both absolute and apparent size of digital signs are both contributing factors in terms of driver distraction. For this reason, the MTO regulations also further govern the minimum setbacks from the boundary of the road corridor to any digital sign. In the case of the largest allowable signs under Corridor Signage Policy, the sign must be set back at least 84 metres from the highway property line.